Our Values

Ballymaloe Foods is all about family, food and a passion for bringing the best ingredients and taste to our customers, in the most sustainable way possible. We’re committed to very high standards in food production and integrity in business. We’re proud to be a trusted brand and we strive every day to bring our ethos of hard work, dedication and Ballymaloe warmth to everything we do.

“I think it’s very important that one has a good reputation for not spoiling the Earth and for doing your best. We can all make improvements and we need to keep trying to do that”

Yasmin Hyde
- Ballymaloe Food’s Owner

Our Sustainability Journey

Sustainability is key to Ballymaloe Foods’ values and continued successSince the start of Ballymaloe Foods, our founder Yasmin Hyde has always had a focus on sustainability. The ethos of protecting the environment and supporting local producers has been central to Ballymaloe Foods since day one.

Ballymaloe Foods, along with the other Ballymaloe companies, are the proud sponsors of Birdwatch Ireland’s National Garden Bird Survey, the most popular of its citizen science initiatives. The garden survey is a key indicator of how birds are faring within our environment and plays a vital role in the work of Birdwatch Ireland.

“I think it’s very important that one has a good reputation for not spoiling the Earth and for doing your best. We can all make improvements and we need to keep trying to do that”

Yasmin Hyde
- Ballymaloe Food’s Owner

Origin Green Gold Member

To further our commitment to the environment we are verified members of Bord Bia’s Origin Green programme, in September 2021 we were delighted to be awarded Gold MembershipWe go above and beyond to ensure waste at our premises is correctly recycled and have put measures in place to improve our energy efficiency and water consumptionIn 2020, we began our second 5-year plan with Origin Green – continuing to reduce our carbon footprint and the impact that we have on the environment.

Year on year, we consistently exceed our targets in the areas of waste and water management, electricity consumption and charitable donations. 

Moving away from plastic

In the past number of years, we have significantly cut down on the amount of plastic we use. Our aim is to cut our plastic output by 10% per annum and in 2019 we were 39% ahead of our annual targets. Originally our range of single-serving pasta sauces were packed and sold in non-recyclable soft plastic pouches. They are now packed and sold in 100% recyclable glass jars which has – in the first 18 months of production – removed 1.3 tonnes of plastic from our supply chain.   

We are currently working with Enterprise Ireland as part of their Green Start Programme, which involves improving our carbon footprint by assessing the life cycles of our existing packaging and investigating greener alternates.80% of input packaging is currently recycled and 95% of output packaging is recyclable. Within the last 5 years the company has contacted all of their suppliers to encourage them to reduce unnecessary packaging sent with raw materials. 

Energy and water consumption

From 2014 to 2019, we reduced our electricity consumption by 12.5%. We have installed LED lighting in our facility in Little Island, Co. Cork, and have also installed solar panels to reduce our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.  

At Ballymaloe Foods we capture and recycle water, which we then use to steam all of our jars before filling them with our products. We have also put controls in place to ensure water is not needlessly wasted. By taking these steps, we consistently exceed our target of reducing our overall water usage by 10% each year.  

Biodiversity

One-third of our bee species are threatened with extinction from Ireland. As active members of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, Ballymaloe Foods are determined to play their part in reducing the risk to our bees. They do so much for us – it’s only fair that we help them out too! We’ve given Seed Bombs to all of our staff for use at home and in the countryside, and are currently looking at creating ‘Bee Safe’ spaces in our local community.  

Ballymaloe Foods is always a hive of activity – and we’re committed to creating an environment where pollinators can survive and thrive.  

Tree planting

We have been honoured to work with the non-profit organisation Billion Treeswhose goal is to fuel positive environmental change through the conservation and planting of treesThrough our partnership, Ballymaloe Foods are proud to say we have conserved 3,000 trees and planted an additional 300.  

Social Responsibility

At Ballymaloe Foods, we are privileged to be associated with wonderful people, many of them working with incredible charities. In recent years we have supported The Marie Keating Foundation and the Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund. We provide food donations to Food Cloud and Penny Dinners and frequently support local and national charity events and flag days with hampers and products.  

We regularly donate products to Food Cloud and, to date, we have donated approximately 26,001 meals (in 2020 we donated 4,762). Food waste is a huge social and environmental issue that contributes massively to carbon emission. Through our partnership with Food Cloud we are working to decrease the negative impacts of food waste. We support numerous local community events such as the Midleton Food & Drink Festival (now known as fEast)Glounthaune Community Association & Ballycotton Comedy Festival. Ballymaloe Foods was also pleased to lead and support the opening of Ballycotton Island Tours, bringing a much-needed attraction to this local, vibrant, East Cork village. 

Responsible & Local Sourcing

In Ireland, we are so lucky to have many exceptional growers and producers of fresh food and drink on our proverbial doorstep. Where possible, we buy local first, and Irish raw materials. Our beetroot is grown in East Cork by Joe Hartnett, who we have supported to set up and manage the growing and picking of beetroot for us. Furthermore, to meet the growing demand for our Pickled Irish Beetroot, we have also started growing beetroot at Ballymaloe Farm. We buy many of our ingredients locally – such as onions from West Cork Veg; Irish Stout for our Steak Sauce from Dungarvan Irish Stout; apples from MacNeice Fruit; apple juice from The Apple Farm in Tipperary, and Irish cider vinegar from Long Meadow Cider. We buy in bulk where possible to reduce our packaging requirements. 

For our two products that use animal produce – our Mayo and Smoked Bacon Pasta Sauce – we are determined to use free-range and Irish animal produce only. We work with Darren Allen at Ballymaloe Farm to rear rare-breed free-range Irish pigs, and source free-range eggs for our Ballymaloe Mayo from Clonarn Clover in Co. Meath.  

Menu